Gilles R.G. Monif, MD

Gilles Monif, Physician, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Doctors for dedication, achievements, and leadership in medicine and health care research.

Dr. Monif became involved in his profession because he was always a contrarian and his parents had him tested when he was 13 years old. While his father encouraged him to pursue engineering, Dr. Monif found his called in medicine. One of his earliest obstacles to overcome in this pursuit was his childhood dyslexia. After high school, he enrolled at Swarthmore College due to the many people in the biology department who were his inspiration. He earned an AB at the institution in 1957, and in 1961, received an MD, cum laude, from Boston University. Since 1973, Dr. Monif has served as the president of Infection Diseases Inc.

In his career, Dr. Monif has also taught at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, Creighton University and the University of Florida College of Medicine. After earning the degree in medicine, he continued his medical training as a resident in internal medicine at Columbia University. From 1963 to 1965, he conducted research at the National Institutes of Health before becoming a resident in pathology at the New York University School of Medicine. In addition to these positions, Dr. Monif is the co-founder of the Infectious Disease Society for Obstetrics and Gynecology and its international counterpart. He has consulted for a number of organizations, including the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology on Infection Diseases and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. He has also written a number of published works, including “Viral Infections of the Human Fetus,” “Infectious Diseases in Obstetrics & Gynecology” and more than 100 peer-reviewed articles.

The highlight of Dr. Monif’s career was being responsible for the 1982 change of the CDC recommendations for acute salpingitis in women, which was an important medical breakthrough. Prior to that, the therapy for gonorrhea for males and females were identical, which was a gross error. What his research showed was that the changes allowed the bacterial flow of the female genital tract to participate and was responsible for ectopic pregnancies, failure to conceive and ovarian abscesses which would rupture and kill people. He was most proud of what his research found as it has a profound effect on the medical field. Looking toward the future, Dr. Monif endeavors to continue working on researching Crohn’s disease and finding a solution to it.